It’s now easier to buy large SSDs for Steam Deck and Surface PCs.

Microsoft Surface devices had a well-deserved reputation for being unrepairable in their early years, but more recently Microsoft has been looking to change that. Newer Surfaces include detailed repair manuals and, at least in theory, easily upgradeable SSDs.

I say “theoretically”because it’s not as easy as going out and buying a disc and installing it. The Surface’s storage slot uses a standard M.2 interface and most devices make it easy to access, but PCs use relatively rare 30mm drives that most major SSD manufacturers simply don’t offer to mainstream consumers. This has made it harder to use the old tech-savvy money-saving trick of buying a 128GB or 256GB version of a computer and installing a 512GB or 1TB drive on it for a fraction of what the company charges you for it.

But this is slowly changing. Some of the smaller but still reputable SSD manufacturers, such as Sabrent and Inland, have finally begun offering 30mm versions of some of their SSDs, complete with retail packaging and standard warranties. Until recently, the best way to get updates for these drives was to buy a non-warranty, possibly used, white-labeled drive from Newegg or eBay, for example. So being able to buy SSDs in full retail packaging with real warranties is an improvement.

Do-it-yourself storage upgrades can save you tons of money

Laptops and small form factor PCs began to actively use the M.2 connector in 2015 and 2016. It was (and still is) most commonly used to save space in thin and light designs, replacing larger SATA and mini PCI Express connectors and devices. But it has since become a popular interface for high-speed storage. High-end motherboards often come with three or more separate M.2 SSD slots, and this format is also the preferred format for expanding your PlayStation 5’s internal storage.

M.2 devices can come in a variety of physical sizes, and the most common for SSDs is the bubblegum-style “2280”(so named because it’s 22mm wide and 80mm long). Everything from the high-end Samsung 990 Pro to Western Digital’s low-cost WD Blue SN570 are 2280 drives, and most laptops and motherboards are configured to use 2280 drives by default (even if they sometimes have mounting holes for longer or shorter M.2 devices). This is a self-perpetuating cycle; there are other M.2 sizes, but most PCs use 2280 drives, so most SSDs use 2280 size, so most PCs continue to use 2280 drives, and so on.

But 30mm long 2230 SSDs are gradually becoming more common. Microsoft uses them everywhere, from the Surface Pro 9 to the Surface Laptop Go, and even the Xbox Series X and S have 2,230 M.2 drives inside. This is also the preferred disc size for Valve’s Steam Deck. And do-it-yourself upgrades to most of these devices can save you money and more storage space than companies sell you directly, even though prices for 2230 drives like the Sabrent Rocket are relatively high for a mid-range SSD ($90 for 512 GB and $160 for 1 TB). ).

Upgrading a Surface Laptop Go 2 from a 128GB SSD to 256GB costs between $50 and $100 if you buy from Microsoft or another retailer and higher capacity drives aren’t available. Microsoft will charge $300 to upgrade a Surface Pro 9 from 256GB SSD to 512GB and $600 to upgrade from 256GB to 1TB. Different Steam Deck price tiers have other non-storage benefits, but going from the base model’s 64GB of slow eMMC storage to a 256GB SSD still costs at least $130.